STAFF PROFILE
Distinguished Professor Ma Qian Ma
Dr Ma Qian is Distinguished Professor of Advanced Manufacturing and Materials at RMIT. Professor Qian has come to RMIT from The University of Queensland in 2013 where he was the Reader in Materials Engineering, School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering.
Currently Professor Qian also holds the appointments of Honorary Professor of The University of Queensland, Australia, and Specially Appointed Professor of Osaka University, Japan.Professor Qian's major academic outputs include:
- Light Alloys: Metallurgy of Light Metals, 544 pages, 5th edition, Elsevier, 2017 (I. Polmear, D. H. StJohn, J. F. Nie and M. Qian),
- Three other Elsevier books as co-editor: Titanium Powder Metallurgy: Science, Technology and Applications, 648 pages, Elsevier, 2015 (M. Qian and F. H. Froes, editors), Titanium in Medical and Dental Applications, 630 pages. Elsevier, 2018 (F. H. Froes and M. Qian, editors), and Titanium for Consumer Applications, 490 pages, Elsevier, 2019 (F. H. Froes, M. Qian, M. Niinomi, editors).
- 280 peer-reviewed journal articles as of Feb 2022 (355 in Scopus including book chapters, conference papers and editorial notes)
- One commercialised invention - a technology for magnesium alloys (WO03062492; EP1466038; US20050161121; CN1639389A; DE60330309D1).
His publications have attracted more 13,500 Scopus citations (> 12,400 citations excluding self-citations of all authors) with an h-index of 54 as of January 2022.
He and his team have recently developed an ultrasound assisted metal 3D printing process ("Grain structure control during metal 3D printing by high-intensity ultrasound", Nature Communications, 2020, 11, 142, which can convert the long columnar grains into fine equiaxed grains, demonstrated on Ti-6Al-4V and Inconel 625. In addition, it allows for the fabrication of gradient materials by switching on and off the ultrasound during metal 3D printing. The audience reach within three weeks of the publication of this work through a RMIT news release was 146 million.
More recently, he and his team have developed a robust bulk micro-nano hierarchical copper material possessing exceptional bactericidal efficacy (Biomaterials, 2022, 280, 121721). This new copper surface can eliminate golden staph in 2 minutes, 120 times than a normal copper surface. The audience reach within three weeks of the publication of this work through a RMIT news release was 276 million.
He co-developed the widely accepted Interdependence Theory of Solidification (Acta Materialia, 2011, 59, 4907-4921; 2010, 58, 3262-3270) and the in-situ phase transformation controlled selective laser melting (SLM) process for 3D printing of titanium alloys (Acta Materialia, 2015, 85, 74-84).
His other fundamental contributions include those that focused on heterogeneous nucleation (Acta Materialia, 2007, 55, 943-953; 2006, 54, 2241-2252, J. Chem. Phys. 2009, 130, 214709, J. Crystal Growth, 2012, 355, 73-77), powder metallurgy of titanium alloys (Acta Materialia , 2014, 68, 196–206) and aluminium alloys (Acta Materialia, 2010, 58, 5667-5674), de-alloying and re-alloying (Acta Materialia, 2019, 168, 376-392; Electrochimica Acta 2015, 164, 288-296) and thermodynamics of materials (Acta Materialia, 1998, 46,1669-1681; Acta Metallurgica et Materialia, 1994, 42, 4083-4086; 1994, 42, 4087-4091; Metall Mater Trans A, 2002, 33A, pp. 1285-1287; 2000, 31A, 2659-2661).
Professor Qian is an elected Fellow of American Society for Metals International (FASM), the World's foremost professional society for materials scientists, engineers and technicians (established in 1913). He currently serves as an Associate Editor for both Acta Materialia and Scripta Materialia and is on the editorial board for a number of other journals. In addition, he is the Series Editor of Elsevier on Additive Manufacturing and an Advisory Editor of Elsevier on Advanced Manufacturing and Materials. Also, he serves as the Publications Committee Chair of Materials Australia.
Professor Qian has received nine research awards including the American Society for Metals (ASM) 2006 Henry Howe Marion Medal with his colleagues, TMS Light Metals 2003 - Magnesium Technology Award, the inaugural Australian CAST-CRC Industry Partners Award (2003) and RMIT Engineering 2019 Executive Dean's Research Excellence Award - Level E (professorial level).
Professor Qian initiated the first biennial international conference on Powder Metallurgy Titanium (PM Ti) in 2011 in Australia, which has been Successively held in New Zealand (2013), Germany (2015), China (2017) and the United States (2019). It has become a premier conference on PM Ti and the scope of this conference was extended to cover 3D printing of titanium alloys since the 2015 conference in Germany. In addition, he served as the Organising Committee Chair for the first (2017) and second (2019) Asia-Pacific International Conference on Additive Manufacturing (APICAM) organised by Materials Australia in Melbourne at RMIT University.
- Lu, S.,Todaro, C.,Sun, Y.,Song, T.,Brandt, M.,Ma, M. (2022). Variant selection in additively manufactured alpha-beta titanium alloys In: Journal of Materials Science and Technology, 113, 14 - 21
- Lu, S.,Wang, J.,Sun, Y.,Song, T.,Ma, M. (2022). Identification of unusual large zones of Category I triple-alpha-variant clusters in additively manufactured Ti-4Al-2V alloy In: Scripta Materialia, 212, 1 - 6
- Lui, E.,Medvedev, A.,Edwards, D.,Ma, M.,Leary, M.,Brandt, M. (2022). Microstructure modification of additive manufactured Ti-6Al-4V plates for improved ballistic performance properties In: Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 301, 1 - 9
- Noronha, J.,Leary, M.,Ma, M.,Kyriakou, E.,Brandt, M. (2022). Geometrical parameters and mechanical properties of Ti6Al4V hollow-walled lattices In: Materials Science and Engineering A, 840, 1 - 13
- Elambasseril, J.,Rogers, J.,Wallbrink, C.,Munk, D.,Leary, M.,Ma, M. (2022). Laser powder bed fusion additive manufacturing (LPBF-AM): the influence of design features and LPBF variables on surface topography and effect on fatigue properties In: Critical Reviews in Solid State and Materials Sciences, , 1 - 37
- Almalki, A.,Downing, D.,Lozanovski, B.,Tino, R.,du Plessis, A.,Ma, M.,Brandt, M.,Leary, M. (2022). A Digital-Twin Methodology for the Non-destructive Certification of Lattice Structures In: JOM, 74, 1 - 14
- Elambasseril, J.,Benoit, M.,Zhu, S.,Easton, M.,Lui, E.,Brice, C.,Ma, M.,Brandt, M. (2022). Effect of process parameters and grain refinement on hot tearing susceptibility of high strength aluminum alloy 2139 in laser powder bed fusion In: Progress in Additive Manufacturing, , 1 - 15
- Liu, H.,Liu, Y.,Lu, S.,Chen, Y.,Ma, Q, et al, . (2022). Alloy solidification: Assessment and improvement of an easy-to-apply model In: Journal of Materials Science and Technology, 130, 1 - 11
- Smith, J.,Tran, N.,Song, T.,Liang, D.,Ma, Q. (2022). Robust bulk micro-nano hierarchical copper structures possessing exceptional bactericidal efficacy In: Biomaterials, 280, 1 - 12
- Song, T.,Zhang, X.,Zhong, H.,Brandt, M.,Ma, Q. (2021). Architectured hierarchical porous metals enabled by additive manufacturing In: Australian Journal of Mechanical Engineering, 19, 669 - 679
12 PhD Completions13 PhD Current Supervisions and 1 Masters by Research Current Supervisions
- Ultrahigh strength maraging titanium alloys for additive manufacturing. Funded by: ARC Discovery Projects commencing in 2022 from (2022 to 2025)
- Non-destructive detection and analysis in AM metal (PhD candidate Sana Awan). Funded by: CSIRO Post Graduate Top Up Scholarship from (2021 to 2025)
- A high-power-ultrasound 3D printing enabling apparatus for the manufacture of unique top-quality orthopaedic implants. Funded by: Harold and Cora Brennen Trust Grant from (2021 to 2022)
- Novel micro-architecture-optimised metal lattice structures by 3D printing. Funded by: ARC Discovery Projects 2020 from (2020 to 2023)
- Additive Manufactured Lightweight Ballistic Protection Materials. Funded by: Defence Science and Technology Group - Contract from (2019 to 2023)